Local leaders celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. WITH VIDEO

The Oakland Press/TIM THOMPSON
Guest speaker Dr. Gordon May, President of Oakland Community College-Highland Lakes Campus, left, and the Rev. Douglas Jones, pastor of Welcome Missionary Baptist Church, speak before the Dr. Martin Luther King Luncheon at the St. George Cultural Center in Bloomfield Township.

Pontiac's clergy, business and political leaders celebrated the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on what would have been his 84th birthday by spreading King's message of giving.

"(King) was about volunteering. He was about helping others, more so than he was about helping himself," said Dr. Gordon May, president of Oakland Community College's Highland Lakes campus.

"I think our greatest takeaway from this event is what can we do for others. He did so much for others. He gave his life for others," said May, who was the keynote speaker at the 27th annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. luncheon, held Tuesday at St. George Cultural Center in Bloomfield Hills and organized by the Greater Pontiac Community Coalition.

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After a Unity March from the Phoenix Center to McLaren Oakland Medical Center on Tuesday morning, the luncheon was held with the theme of "Two dreams, two hopes, one vision," referring to both King and Rosa Parks, the civil rights activist whose refusal to cede her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala. in 1955 was a turning point in the American civil rights movement and the desegregation of the bus system and country as a whole.

King "chose to be a proponent and an advocate for not only civil rights, but for human rights, and he did a marvelous job of it," said May. "We miss him so much."

King "spoke out on issues. He wasn't afraid to speak out on the issues -- controversial issues -- and he would be doing that today, and we so wish he were still here, but he left a legacy in all of us, something we can all do," said May, whose career at Oakland Community College began in 1986.

"He used to say, 'Think globally, but act locally,' and what I take away from that is that there are things that we can do in our communities," May said.

"We can help the elderly. We can cut their grass, shovel their snow, take them to the drugstore for their medication. That, in and of itself, is really an inspiring thing to do within the legacy of Dr. King. He was all about giving. He was all about giving himself to others for the betterment of mankind," May said.

Oakland County Commissioner Mattie McKinney Hatchett said: "The dream is still alive, and you know how I know that the dream is still alive? You are alive. And the dream is in you. The baton is in your hands."

Jill Hamilton led the audience in singing "We Shall Overcome," and many stood hand-in-hand as they sang: "Oh, deep in my heart/I do believe/We shall overcome, some day."

King, the civil rights icon and recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, led the 381-day-long Montgomery, Ala. bus boycott in 1955 and 1956.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character," King said to hundreds of thousands gathered before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. for the March on Washington in 1963.

King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where he was advocating for striking black sanitation workers. He was 39 years old.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation that created a federal holiday honoring King: Martin Luther King Jr. Day, observed on the third Monday of each January. This year, Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls on Monday, Jan. 21.

Oakland Community College's May said he was senior in high school when King was assassinated.

"Dr. King ... just opened doors for all of us," he said.

"Without his involvement, I don't think I'd be the president of Oakland Community College's Highland Lakes campus right now. He just opened so many doors. I wonder: Where would we be without an advocate like Dr. King?"

Mistress of ceremonies Vicki Ellis said to the audience at St. George Cultural Center, "If you feel you've benefited from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., just raise your hand."

Everyone present raised their hand in the air.

"Now, what are you going to do?" Ellis said.

The Oakland Press was a sponsor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. luncheon.